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Published: February 8th 2011
Huge Chedi
at Golden MountI remembered vaguely a story I had once heard about a solid gold Buddha that was disguised with such intricacy, that for hundreds of years people believed it to be just an average plaster Buddha image, until it was knocked during transport and the plaster chipped away to reveal the gold jackpot inside. Arriving in Bangkok had me wondering whether this famous gold Buddha could be close by. It wasn’t until last night, while flicking through our seldom used rough guide to Thailands beaches and islands that it was there, staring me in the face under the Bangkok coverage section! ‘Wat Traimit and the Golden Buddha’ this Buddha was in fact cast in the 13th century and brought to Bangkok by Rama III, encased in stucco, which was common ruse for concealing precious images from thieves during transportation. The Buddha was actually on its way to Wat Traimit in 1955 when the plaster broke away and the secret was revealed. Wat Traimit is now the home of the most valuable Buddha in the world – it is made from 5.5 tonnes of solid gold, and cashes in at over 10 million USD, by weight alone! This could not be missed.
11.30am ish and we were standing at the temple compound which is situated 200m down Thanon Tri Mit, close to Hualampong subway station in Chinatown. The midday sun reflected blindingly off the pristine white temple walls; I popped down my sunglasses for a better look. It was certainly the only building in the area that had received a thorough spit and polish; it shone out like a dazzling gemstone in a neighbourhood of ramshackle little shops, smothered in charcoal black from the toxic air pollution. On the street, a white cat smudged so grey that it had acquired camouflage in its concrete habitat, was a stark reminder of the city’s pollution problems. At least it was perfectly obvious that our 40B entrance fee was actually going on the upkeep of the temple as they say it does.
A few stairs tackled slowly in the heat and we were in front of the worlds’ largest golden Buddha. You could have got dressed in the morning using this Buddha; it was buffed to perfection. Adoring crowds knelt beneath it praying, amongst people fumbling with cameras and others hop scotching over those who
were seated to get the perfect backdrop for their photo. Everyone was in good spirits though and I chose a spot near the wall to sit and get a better look. In my opinion this Buddha had a particularly hypnotic face – it wasn’t gazing at anything or anyone in particular, just downwards, in a languid and accepting fashion. It was like looking at a beautiful painting, of say, a calm sea or a sunny meadow that instantly relaxes you. But the crowd continued to grow and jostle to get photos and so we vacated.
A twist and turn down a few streets lined with steamy soup cafés and BBQs grilling various odds and ends and we reached a Chinese noodle soup restaurant for some breakfast outside the marine department. The river taxi was a while coming, and although we had every intention of getting the special tourist sightseeing boat taxi that bobs slowly the muddy river, we just jumped on a regular river taxi to save time. And there is nothing quite like a Bangkok river taxi ride; the boat would happily speed off while you still have one leg on the platform and
people are literally wrestling to jump aboard! It doesn’t cost much, literally around 14B per journey, no matter the distance. Wat Arun was our next destination and as the taxi stops the opposite side of the river, we needed to get the 3B ferry to the other side.
What Arun is a famous Bangkok landmark, and once upon a time, it even housed the Emerald Buddha. Wat Arun differs a great deal in appearance to many other of Bangkok’s Wats which sparkle in the sunlight, covered in shards of mirror, in a cacophony of colours. From a distance Wat Arun does anything but reflect, it absorbs; with its muted mosaic walls of sun bleached crockery. Yes crockery! From anything further than a few metres away Wat Aruns colours muffle together to produce something unrefined, almost dirty looking. But upon closer inspection, these thorn-like projections that form the body of the temple are elaborately decorated with dusky toned flowers made from broken porcelain. The mythical Kinnari and Yaksha demon statues, that support the various levels of the tower, are similarly decorated. It’s kind of like a collage!
Even more amazing are the precariously steep stone stairs
Dedicated Followers
come to offer the Golden Buddha money and lotus flowers that lead you, in a death defying fashion, to the 81m high summit of the central prong. Both hands on both rails, I ascended one tentative step at a time; Ste bumbled up, camera rolling in his hand. I shouted a few precautionary words from above, sounding a little like his mother. The views from the top were tremendous, especially on such a sunny day. From here we could also view the other four prongs that encircled the main tower; they looked pretty miniature now from this great height.
As we were leaving, a line of Glittering Thai style headdresses caught my eye and I pointed them out to Ste. Seconds later I saw a woman getting dressed into a complete outfit, including hat. “200 Baht” the merchant blurted, “Ahh too expensive” I said. She then lowered her voice “I charge them 200 but for you 100” it took a moment of thought, but it was only 2 pounds, so why not. In flurry of material I was transformed and walking awkwardly to avoid the heavy headdress toppling off. The woman showed me various poses with my curly metal finger extensions and I spent the
next 10 minutes having my photo taken by Ste and a few passer bys.
We caught the ferry across the river and took a stroll to Kho san road which is Bangkok’s backpacker hub and where we would have been residing if we hadn’t stayed in Verity’s uncle’s spare condo!! Woohoo. And thank GOD we weren’t staying there. Backpackers spilled into every available inch of space and people were already stumbling about the streets from afternoon drinking. You could buy fake documentations from random street vendors, including British driving licences and even degree certificates! Random. We paused only to purchase some flag patches to sew onto our backpacks.
Crossing a couple of 6 lane roads, we reached the October 14th memorial statue, which was nothing to write home about. Next was the Democracy monument which was illuminated by the afternoon sun. I was just snapping a photo of 5 Thai school girls cramming into the back of a taxi when a man approached us. It was a familiar spiel, he was obviously a tuk tuk driver pretending he gave a damn about our lives, we played along with him. The
inevitable question eventually came “So where you going” and he instantly proceeded to tell us about all these places he could take us for only 40B, to which I replied “I’m not going to any damn suit shops, no tailors, no no no!” or something like that “No I not take you to tailors” – “So what is the catch” I replied, by this time we were having a giggle, its best to keep it light hearted. We reluctantly agreed and he led us to tuk tuk. My arse cheek had literally touched the seat when he said we would have to go to the TAT (tourist travel agency) so he could get his free petrol voucher for taking us there. “Whatever” we both laughed and he raced off into the traffic, dodging buses and heading into the oncoming traffic. A tuk tuk ride in Bangkok, however unsafe, will put a smile on your face. Darting through lanes of traffic at breakneck speed is better than any white knuckle ride I know. He did as promised and took us to the Golden Mount Temple, so far so good and our feet finally got a rest. He showed us the entrance,
how strangely helpful. We speculated about what the catch would be, as we ascended the huge spiralling stairs that led to the top of the golden mount. The goal, the gleaming gold Chedi, that sits on top of the Golden Mount structure. There was a narrow indoor staircase before we emerged once again into the daylight and were blinded by the lustrous golden blaze of the bell shaped Chedi. Tiny fluttering red flags radiated from its mighty pinnacle like a maypole. Bells with people’s names written upon them, tinkled in the wind. There were hundreds of bank notes pinned to lines that surrounded the giant Bell. People prayed and tourists gazed. It was certainly a sight. We rang the lines of oxidised brass bells as we headed back down the Mount. There, we were greeted by our super smiley tuk tuk driver.
Mr tuk tuk man then insisted we visit the TAT so he could get his petrol voucher. We were ushered inside as he roughly pointed out the direction of the 45m tall Buddha and told us to meet him back outside the TAT after we had made the short walk to see it.
Praying
at the Temple of the Golden Buddha Sitting in the TAT, we made it completely obvious that we had no intention of making any travel plans today and managed to shrug the agent off fairly quickly. We then strode down the busy road; there was no Buddha in sight. “He’s bullshitting us isn’t he?” I repeated “I bet there’s no Buddha” as we stepped over sleeping dogs and random refuse that had tumbled out of shop doors and onto the pavement. Ste disagreed at first, but as we made our way further and further away from the TAT, he was also starting to have his doubts. We were about to give up when a street with market stalls appeared to our right, and then over the tops of the buildings popped the head of the towering gold Buddha. “There is a Buddha!” I shouted, and some Buddha it was! It was glowing gold in the soft afternoon sun. Its feet were as wide as a bus and it soared above us through a cloud of burning incense. To be honest it was pretty gaudy looking, but still impressive. But more interesting to me was the graveyard. I know it sounds morbid, but at this particular temple the
Soupy Noodles
in the little caf outside the marine department graves were walls turned display cabinets, fronted with glass and containing decorative earns and photographs of loved ones. Beside one earn there was also a small glass bowl which appeared to contain fragments of bone! I’ve not seen anything like it before, but it had a better feel about it than a depressing grey graveyard.
Of course when we returned to the TAT Mr tuk tuk driver had buggered off. What a surprise. We weren’t in the least bit bothered, as we had visited a couple of places we wouldn’t otherwise have known about, for free. We managed to navigate ourselves back to the river taxi as the sun was setting and made our way back to the flat to rest our tired limbs.
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